SOIUEID^E— SOIURUS VARIABILIS. 709 



golden or red extremities. The hairs of the dorsal surface are black at the 

 base, broadly tipped with fulvous, rufous, or bright red, the posterior half of 

 the dorsal surface of the body generally much redder than the anterior half. 

 Runs occasionally into melanistic phases, in which the whole animal is black. 



This species is most obviously distinguished among the South American 

 Sciuri by its large size and very long, narrow ears, generally nearly or quite 

 an inch in length, or even more. Its variability in color has given rise to 

 numerous synonyms, often originating in the MS. names of collectors. It 

 appears to vary in length of body from about 10.00 to 12.00 inches, the tail- 

 vertebra? being about one inch shorter, and the tail with the hairs about two 

 inches longer than the length of head and body. 



This species was first described by GebfFroy, in 183*2, as Sciurus vari- 

 abilis, from Colombian specimens, in which the ventral surface was red. 

 Brandt's S. langsdorffi,, described from a Brazilian specimen in 1835, is evi- 

 dently the same animal. Wagner,* in 1843, pointed out the great variability 

 in color to which he then supposed the S. langsdorffi, of Brandt was subject, 

 describing in detail four Brazilian specimens which varied greatly from each 

 other iu coloration. The ventral surface in one was light rust-yellow, in 

 another white, in another rusty-brown, and in the other ferrugineous, dark- 

 ening posteriorly to chestnut. The upper surface in the first was wholly 

 fox-red, in the second black varied with brownish-yellow, passing into fox- 

 red posteriorly, the third chiefly black above varied with yellow, the fourth 

 mainly rufous. He failed, however, to identify GeofFroy's S. variabilis with 

 this species. Tschudi redescribed and figured Geoffroy's S. variabilis from 

 Peruvian specimens, in which the dorsal surface was light reddish-brown 

 sprinkled with black, the ventral surface generally white, but sometimes red. 

 Wagner, in 1842, published short diagnoses of Sciurus igniventris and S. 

 pyrrhonotus Natterer, MS. These species he redescribed in detail in 1850, 

 with fuller accounts also of 8. langsdorffi, and a notice of the S. tricolor 

 (Poeppig MS.) Tschudi. He refers to nine examples of 8. langsdorffi, seven 

 of S. igniventris, and nine also of S. pyrrhonotus, all, with one exception, 

 from batterer's collection. Under S. langsdorffi., Wagner states that the 

 additional material received since the publication of his former notice of that 

 species had led him to retract the opinions there expressed respecting the 

 variability of S. langsdorffi, and that he considered as erroneous the reference 



* Snppl. Scbreber's Sauget. iii, 183. 

 49 M 



